T.S. Eliot's Waste Land

This class will explore in detail one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century, The Waste Land. Because this poem was not created in isolation, it brings with it a whole group of drafts and unpublished texts. We will study its textual genesis along with the historical contexts of the Waste Land. We will analyze its layering of voices, define the nuances of its polyphony as it shifts from musical quotes to borrowings from popular culture. We will pay attention to its critical, literary, sexual and philosophical intertexts. We will wonder whether this poem has to be understood as a London poem or an American poem. We will assess how much of it was shaped by Eliot’s experiences during WWI. Finally, we will try to define its modernity. If the Waste Land has remained one of the best examples of modernist classicism, what can this convey about the future of poetry?

Bibliography:

T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts, ed. V. Eliot, 1971.